| CONSERVATIVES WITHOUT CONSCIENCE John Dean New York: Viking, 2006 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-670-03774-2 | ||||
| ISBN 0-670-03774-5 | 246pp. | HC | $25.95 | |
| Page xvi: | "He explained that the book claimed I arranged the break-ins through my secret relationship with former White House consultant E. Howard Hunt—Hunt, who along with Gordon Liddy..." |
| Proper name repeated without need: S/B "E. Howard Hunt—who,". |
| Page xix: | "Clearly, a book tour was underway..." |
| Missing space: S/B "under way". |
| Page 9: | "...as he endeavored to bridge intellectual conservatism with real-world politics." |
| Poor wording: S/B "build a bridge between . . . and" or something similar. |
| Page 10: | "Leaders such as George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and Pat Robertson . . . have easily overwhelmed and pushed aside the principles of conservative's founders." |
| Use of adjective as noun: S/B "conservatism's founders". |
| Page 62: | "Nothing shows lack of conscience better than bold-faced lying." |
| Should it be "bold-faced" or "bald-faced"? I suppose either would work. |
| Page 82: | "They are uncomfortable with the unchecked and unbalanced Bush/Cheney presidency, and the conspicuously right-wing authoritarian Congress that compliantly cedes to the executive branch." |
| Grammar: "cedes" is a transitive verb. S/B "that compliantly cedes power to". |
| Page 93: | "(It is impossible to believe that Weyrich, a deacon in the Melkite Catholic Church, does not know that the Romans crucified Jesus, and that his libel has been responsible for the persecution of Jews throughout history.)" |
| Taken literally, this is a temporal paradox. S/B "that libel such as his". |
| Page 138: | "For example, in 1998, when the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) hired former Democratic representative Dave McCurdy..." |
| This fooled me. I thought it was an incorrect expansion of the acronym, which S/B "Electronic Industries Association". On checking the EIA Web site, I found I'm wrong: it recently changed its name. |
| Pages 147-148: | "Based on successive changes of the Senate rules, the supermajority needed for a cloture vote was reduced to a vote by sixty senators. Thus, when a senator informs the leadership of plans to filibuster—and the leadership knows that he or she has the support of at least sixty senators and, therefore, the ability to invoke cloture and override the threatened filibuster—the matter will not even go to the floor for a vote. The modern filibuster has therefore become silent, since its mere threat results in stopping a debate in its tracks." |
| I just don't see how this conclusion follows. In the scenario outlined, the leadership can end the filibuster; thus, it is not the filibuster that stops the debate, but the leadership's ability to invoke cloture. |
| Page 161: | "* ...I have never been certain that Cheney will not go the distance of a full second term. When the Washington Times's Insight magazine runs stories highlighting this potential it has some basis. See Anonymous, 'Cheney seen retiring after midterm elections'..." |
| This footnote is confusing. I believe the confusion arises from an unwanted negative, and that the highlighted portion S/B "will go the distance". |
| Page 185: | "Thus, that which works and reads well, credit Rick; that which does not, please blame me." |
| OK, John; you're to blame. But Rick should have caught the fact that this S/B "for that which works and reads well". |
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